# Where can I find out who paid for product placements in films?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 9, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104 "2010-11-09T22:56:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Knigel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Knigel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knigel)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104/1 "2010-11-09T22:56:26Z")

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How can I find out who invested, funded, and sponsored certain movies in exchange for product placements and how much they paid? I am trying to find out where the product placements are coming from in movies. Right now I’m working on Wayne Wang’s ‘Smoke’, but also want to find this kind of information for other films.

Secondarily, I would welcome any personal information or unique resources on product placements in regards to creating narrative and the psychology of persuasion.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104/2 "2010-11-09T23:13:23Z")

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You’re likely not going to find what you want, because there’s no law or even movie industry code that requires identification of product placement. If the pluggers aren’t listed somewhere in the credits, then the producers aren’t talking.

And here’s a terribly formatted [study on the effectiveness of placements](http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/7/2/8/0/pages172808/p172808-1.php). Short answer, it depends on how closely the product is integrated with the plot or key characters.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104/3 "2010-11-10T04:48:08Z")

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You couldn’t give away Reese’s Pieces until the movie ET came out. I’m not sure what the real back story was, but product manufacturers used to be overly cautious about allowing their products to be shown on film. Rumor has it that Mars wouldn’t allow M&M’s to be used in the movie. Watch some older movies and you’ll see generic labels all over things. Now, a generic label is a sign that a manufacturer wouldn’t pay to get their product featured.

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**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-out-who-paid-for-product-placements-in-films/560104/4 "2010-11-10T20:32:26Z")

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> [@Knigel](#):
>
> How can I find out who invested, funded, and sponsored certain movies in exchange for product placements and how much they paid?

You’re not going to find this out easily. After all, it’s intended to be _secret_ – the point is to try to fool viewers into thinking that the characters just happen to want to drink Coke products, and thereby encourage you to also drink Coke products. If you know that Coke paid them to use Coke products, it’s not as likely to influence you. So they try to keep it secret.